Ethics (1992)

Overview

Yigal Borstein's experimental short film is based on Baruch Spinoza's book of the same name ("Ethics", in Latin). Spinoza called his philosophical theory "geometric"; Accordingly, the prominent visual element in this film is also the geometry. Burstein shows what is happening simultaneously on four balconies of one building. The camera films the events statically and without movement, and as time passes, the events alternate using jump-cuts. The building is a microcosm of Israeli society, whose representatives inhabit each of the balconies: the lonely writer, the young woman and her partner, the family with children who live with the grandmother, the older couple - and later also the Arabs, followed by the IDF soldiers who drive them away.